1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of appliances and, more specifically, to the incorporation of a lighting unit in an access door for an appliance, particularly in a door incorporating a window unit which enables viewing of an interior of the appliance without opening of the door.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In the art of appliances, such as cooking appliances taking the form of ranges or wall units, it is common to provide a window unit in an oven door of the appliance in order to enable food being cooked to be examined without opening the door and losing a considerable amount of heat. In accordance with many known arrangements, the window units incorporate spaced, substantially parallel, transparent plates which are mounted within the door as a unit or pack. In general, these transparent panels can be clear or tinted.
It is also common to provide a light within a cavity of the appliance which can be selectively activated in order to illuminate the cavity for enhanced viewing. That is, when the door is closed, the cavity will often be quite dark and examining the food being cooked through the window unit requires the cavity to first be illuminated. In the prior art, such lighting arrangements have been mounted to either the top, rear or side walls of the oven cavity and wired to a button or switch for controlling the activation of the light. Even in cooking appliances incorporating ovens which do not have window units, lights are still often provided, with the lights being automatically activated upon opening of an oven door.
Because of the extreme temperatures which can be developed in an oven cavity during operation of a cooking appliance, particularly if the appliance incorporates a self-cleaning feature, provisions must be made to protect the wiring and other heat sensitive elements of the lighting unit from being damaged during operation of the appliance. Furthermore, mounting a lighting unit within the oven cavity requires a hole to be formed in at least one wall of the cavity, thereby altering the overall integrity of the cavity and possibly providing a unintended escape zone for heat generated within the cavity.
Although these problems particularly exist in relation to oven cavities, it would also be desirable to illuminate other types of appliance cavities as well. In any event, based on the above, there exists a need in the art of appliances for a lighting arrangement for use in illuminating a cavity of the appliance, yet will enable the integrity of the cavity to be maintained and will assure that all the components of the lighting unit will not be exposed to possible damaging conditions, particularly in the case of exposure to heat in connection with a lighting unit for an oven cavity.
The present invention is directed to illuminating an interior cavity of an appliance. More particularly, the appliance includes an interior cavity having an open frontal portion and a door which is movable between an open position for accessing the interior cavity and a closed position for essentially sealing off the cavity. The door is provided with a window unit which permits viewing of the cavity when the door is closed. In order to enable food items to be viewed through the window unit, a lighting device is carried by the door for illuminating the cavity.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, the appliance constitutes an oven having a door in which is mounted a multi-panel window pack assembly and a lighting device positioned between the panels. The lighting device incorporates a bulb which is arranged within a housing that directs the output from the bulb through a portion of the window pack and into the oven cavity. Power is delivered to the lighting device by routing wires within the door to a location directly adjacent the hinge axis for the door and then to the shell portion of the appliance.
With this construction, the wires and other potentially heat sensitive elements of the lighting device are isolated from the heat generated within the oven cavity during operation of the appliance. In addition, this arrangement simplifies the overall assembly of the appliance as the lighting device can be incorporated as part of a window pack mounted between inner and outer panels of the door. Integrating the lighting device with the window pack simplifies the overall assembly process, thereby reducing overall assembly costs.
Additional objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment thereof when taken in conjunction with the drawings wherein like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts in the several views.